Under the Weather

uuuhhhhg both Jaina and I are feeling terrible tonight. Jaina started having a runny nose last night and has been sneezing alot and I just feel like plain pooh.My head, throat and body is sore and am just exhausted. And I'm hoping and praying that its not the flu/swine flu /bird flu whatever people are calling it these days. Maybe we'll just sleep in late tomorrow and we will feel better. Other then that not much else going on at the moment. Except Jaina is getting her 4 tooth on the bottom. I'm a excited for her. As you all know that is the one thing she has been slow at developing, which the doctor says is completely normal and I have nothing to worry about. But I see all these other babies who are like 8 months old and have a head full of teeth. I know I should never compare my child to another child but I just have a fear because I went to high school with a girl who still had some of her baby teeth and then the ones she did loose she never grew one in place of that. She got made fun of all the time and all the kids called her no teeth girl and I just fear that with Jaina because her teeth are coming in so slow. I know I know its stupid, I have getter issues to worry about.Her new favorite hang out. She pulls all the sheets and blankets out of the closet all the time and its driving me crazy! I guess Justin will have to put a latch on that one too!She loves her baby Phoenix. Justin caught him in Jaina's crib sleeping with her the other morning!

13 months

Well I missed this post by a week or so but that's okay. We were just really busy with Thanksgiving, guests and of course our computer breaking down on us again. Jaina turned 13 months on the 21st and is such a big girl. She is still our lovable, huggable little girl. She is becoming such a mess! She brightens my world everyday and is the apple of daddy's eye :)
Lets you what you have been up to lately:

You've learned some new words, nite nite and no no no.

You listen to commands like, bring me that, come here, outta here and give me that

You will bring your sippy cup to me or bang it if you want more milk or juice

You are running now instead of walking!

When I tell you "No" "give me that" you start for a full run towards the first exit you see

When I tell you "No" you will try to test our limits by almost touching the object but you don't

You are eating better, real cereal and milk in the mornings, table food and baby jar food for lunch and usually whatever we are eating for dinner

You are off all bottles except at night time

You love playing out side and going riding in your wagon

You are around 24 pounds and fit in a size 12 -18month clothes and wear a size 4 shoe

You have four teeth up top and three on bottom ( we're still working on those)

And You get into everything!Things that you are working on:

Saying more words

Eating more table food

Things you are afraid of:

Your new baby doll mommy and daddy got you for your birthday ( you cry every time you see it) and of course our red vacuum cleaner

Happy Turkey Day!!

ugghhh being stuffed from turkey and dressing is not a good feeling after you eat! But it sure was good going in! This year we had Thanksgiving at my house. My uncle was in no mood of celebrating at his house since my grandma isn't here and my parents house is in Houston so we just decided to do it at mine. I'm use to having a big celebration with the whole family but this year everyone kinda did there own thing. My sister went to her boyfriends and my cousin and her dad went to visit their family. So it was just my parents, uncle, Jaina, Justin and I.

My mom cooked an awesomely delicious meal and I made dessert! My mom cooked all the usuals, turkey, dressing, potatoes, green bean casserole and watergate salad (you know that green stuff that tastes so good but your not sure what's in it). And I made a tiramisu cheesecake and it was yummy! Jaina sat in her high chair at the table with us and had some mashed potatoes and green beans which she really liked but she wasn't to impressed with the watergate salad.

After we ate and were all stuffed we just hung out and talked and watched football (well the guys did). Jaina was a little tired and cranky this year compared to last year. Last year Jaina was just 5 weeks old at Thanksgiving and slept through the whole meal. We took her up to Wichita Falls for the first time and had Thanksgiving at Justin's grandpa's house. I remember two important things that happened on Thanksgiving last year. Jaina slept all the way through the whole night for the first time and my mom, sister and niece were in a horrible head on car accident. They were traveling from Houston to Temple to see my grandma when a guy crossed the lane and hit them head on. My mom re-broke her leg which was still broke from the summer when she fell off the ladder and she broke her arm. My sister broke her leg and arm as well and my niece who was asleep in the back of the car just had some minor bruising. All three of them were life flighted to Scott & White hospital and spent the next month in the hospital.

Jaina's first Thanksgiving last year at 5 weeks old

Pops and Granny Pat with Jaina

Daddy and Jaina last year

Jaina was overly tired and didn't want to go to sleep until momma joined her. So I did. We took a nice long two hour nap and then just hung out and ate some more until it was time to go to sleep again. Thanksgiving was great and I can't wait to have more with her and my family. I hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving as well.

And here is Jaina this year, lol

Alot to be Thankful for this year

This year I am Thankful of many things in my life. First and for most I am Thankful for my beautiful, lovable, healthy, fun and growing daughter. She is my world. She gives my life purpose, joy and happiness and most of all something to live for. She is my everything and I don't know what I would do with out her in my life. God chose me to be her Mom and there for I am thankful of that. I am thankful that she is a healthy growing baby and will grow up in a safe, loving and caring environment. I am Thankful for my loving, caring tender husband. I am SO thankful that he is the best dad in the whole world to Jaina. I am thankful from day one that he gives 100% when it comes to helping out with Jaina and all her duties of caring for her. I am thankful for him being able to support our family and supports me in whatever I choose to do. I am thankful that he is my best friend. I am thankful that he loves me with all his heart and chose me to spend the rest of his life with.

I am thankful for my Lord and Savior. I am thankful to him that he gives me unconditional love. I am able to pray to him whenever I want to and talk to him and he is always there to listen to me. He answers my prayers and helps me in my darkest hours. I would have no driven purpose in life without God.
And I am thankful for my parents. Always being there and supporting me throughout the years. Giving me unconditional love. Choosing the right road for me and disciplining me through the years. I am especially thankful these days for helping me out with Jaina when ever I call and need there assistance, they are right there for me! HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

some much to say!

This past Friday the Oliver's came down to visit us. Kimbra and Weyman are Jaina's Godparents. It was there 33rd anniversary. Wow! 33 years.....that's a long time. Congrats to both of you! They came down for the night and headed to San Antonio the next day. We all had a great visit catching up. Kimbra and Weyman brought Jaina a super adorable pink bouncing cow. She said she got it in Canton. I am Dieing to go to Canton. Jaina loved her little cow. I think she was a little scared of it at first but she has got the hang of it now. She loved all the new attention from Weyman and Kimbra. She was probably wondering why they don't come and visit more. She had a fun time pulling kimbra's hair, Putting make up on Weyman and showing off her Christmas tree in her room. We were all starving so we took them to Johnny's steak house here in Salado. If you are ever passing through Salado, hit up Johnny's its a great place to eat!

Kimbra and Jaina

Jaina helping Weyman put his make-up on.

Jaina helping Kimbra fix her hair, lol (more like pulling the heck out of it)Jaina's pink bouncing cow

Daddy and Mommy showing Jaina how to ride her cow

Riding her cow one last time before bedtimeIn front of Johnny's steak house. Happy 33rd anniversary! Today my parents came down from Houston and met me at Scott & White Hospital. I had a doctors appointment so they stayed out in the lobby to watch Jaina while I went in. I had to meet with a general surgeon about the trouble I have been having with my Gallbladder. He basically told me now that I have gallstones there is nothing I can do to fix it but to have surgery and for some reason I am terrified of having surgery! I asked him why do I have them and there are people out there who weight 350 pounds who don't have gallbladder trouble. He said that I most likely had them before I got pregnant or got them shortly after I delivered and they developed into stones because some women who just have had babies tend to have more Estrogen then others and the Estrogen somehow connects to your gallbladder. (If that makes since) There is no medicine, remedies or laser treatment that gets rid of them. Or if they do the stones will always come back. I thought oh great, surgery was the last thing I wanted to do. And he set it up for December 14! Yikes! The reason I am so terrified is because I am SO afraid that the "Velvet Hammer" as my uncle likes to call it or the anesthesia will not work or they wont put me under enough and I will be able to feel it. Because when I was in labor nothing, NO medicine worked, I could feel it all and I don't want that to happen again and the possibility of dieing!!! So please please pray for me. Tonight I went out in the back yard to check our garden and found all three of my flowers blooming! I've been waiting since May for those to bloom out. These flowers are very special to me because they are the flowers I planted from my grandma's funeral and it was a reminder that this is the very first year she will not be with all of us for Thanksgiving and I miss her so much. She was my best friend. I know she is in a wonderful and much much better place. I know that she is not in pain anymore and I know she is in Heaven with a wonderful man...God! This Thanksgiving she is in Heaven eating her Thanksgiving dinner with our Lord and Savior and I am SO Thankful this year for that! My Granny was the best Granny in the whole world. I spent all my summers with her, she helped raise me as a child when my parents were working and she was the sweetest and kindest Granny you would have ever met. I miss her everyday. I miss talking with her and laughing with her and most of all I miss her rubbing my "turkey legs"! I love you Granny.

Purple mum plant

White Daisies Justin, Jaina and I bought her for her funeral
My beautiful, beautiful Granny

Little friends

The other night Justin and I invited our good friends Carolyn and her husband Chris over and they brought their son Caden. His big brother Colton was at grandma's this time and couldn't come by and Jaina just Loved having some one her size over to play with her. She has no I mean NO interaction with other children and when she saw Caden she just followed him around like a little shadow. It was so nice because they were off in the living room entertaining each other while we were in the kitchen hanging out. She really needs to start being around other kids for social interaction. I told Justin that we definitely need to put Jaina in some kind of Mother's day out or something after the cold and flu season is over with or we could just have another baby.......NOT! (Well not at the moment)

Wagon Ride

Today Jaina and I enjoyed the cool weather by taken her in her new Radio Flyer red wagon she got from her great-uncle for her birthday. She loves riding up and down the street in her wagon. There is about 3 other couples in our neighborhood who we see taking there babies for rides in their wagons too! Every child should have a red wagon. I know me and my sisters did. Its a great buy!And we also made a trip into Killeen cause mommy had to pay a dang speeding ticket. So while we were there we stopped in at Wal-mart to buy some white Christmas lights and look what Jaina found, this ridiculously big rain deer head band. Ha! They looked so funny and big on her tiny little head.

A little tear

Tonight I came to realize "again" that my baby isn't a baby anymore. I feel now that she is beginning her transition into a toddler. Tonight I packed up her bibs, most of all her bottles, her walker, and all her summer clothes. It made me really sad...... She is becoming such a BIG girl. She now is using a sippy cup at all times except at night time. I finally found the right sippy cup for her thanks to my mom. She now has six teeth, 3 on top and 3 on bottom. And she has been jabbering all day today in this really funny foreign language, lol. It really does sound like it could be a real language somewhere. We really haven't been up to to much lately. Though I did get her Christmas dress today. It is super cute! And I cant wait to get her pictures taken in it. And Justin helped me put up our Christmas tree. And Jaina helped too! I know your probably thinking wow its pretty early to be putting one up but I bought it last week and didn't want to lug it up stairs and then in a week lug it back down stairs so we just went ahead and put it up tonight. Justin of course gripped because it is a fake tree and we normally have a real tree but I just thought this year it would be better because Jaina is so little and is still putting things in her mouth and I didn't want her picking up the pine needles and eating them and whatever else falls off the tree. When I get it all decorated I will post some pics.Justin says it looks like the toy monster threw up in our living room, lol. This is what happens to your life when you have a one year old. We literally have nothing in our living room except couches, a tv and TOYS!!!!

A Christmas Box

Today a package in the mail arrived for us and I knew what it was! It was our Christmas Box that Justin's Grandma made for us and it is so pretty lit up. It's gold with red pin strip ribbon with white and colored lights in it. These boxes normally sell at stores for 100-200 bucks and she makes them for way less then that. She also sells them so for any of yall who are planning on doing any Christmas decorating this year and want any boxes made let me know. You can shoot me an email at jonesj168@templejc.edu and just let me know how big and what colors. The Boxes look really pretty under your Christmas tree or outside on the porch for decoration. And she also sent Jaina a little red Christmas dress as well! Thanks Dorothy!!

A couple of firsts......lol

My mom has been down the last week or so helping me with Jaina since Justin went to Wichita for a hunting trip. Tonight I gave Jaina a bath and called my mom in the room to watch her for a bit while I got some things done. After I was finished I told my mom I could handle the rest and get her out of the tub. Well Jaina was standing up as my mom was leaving the bathroom and I was walking in and I told her to sit down and I looked into the tub and yep Jaina had pulled a fast one on both me and my mom. She pooped in the bath tub. LOL now I can laugh about it but at the time I was a little grossed out. I just knew that was bound to happen on of these days. I probably could have skipped out on that "first". But she made up for it because when I went to lay her down for bed I told her to tell MiMi nite, nite and she said it! And I told her to say it again and she did! I was so excited for her. She is starting to pick up on a lot of words now!

One year doctor's appointment

Yesterday Justin and I took Jaina to her 1 year appointment. We got checked in, she got weighed and measured and then we waited for the doctor to come in. The nurse said she weights 22 pounds and is 30 inches long. The doctor came in and said she looked great and is in the 75% for her weight and height. She also gave us a guesstimate and said she will most likely be 5'5 give or take 2 inches when she gets older. We have been concerned about her eating habits because lately she hasn't been wanting to eat anything especially baby jar food and Justin and I try to give her table food and she just clenches her mouth closed and shakes her head no. The doctor told us to just keep giving her the table food which is fine and less milk during the day, so we will see. Other then that everything else was good and it was the dreadful time for.....shots. She had to get 5 big ones this time. Poor baby. In both legs. The face she made was so sad, she turned beet red and was trying to scream but she couldn't. Justin and I picked her up immediately and just hugged her tight. It made me want to cry. Her legs have been so sore the last day, every time we change her diaper she cries. I hope next time we go she doesn't have to get so many. I don't think I can handle this anymore!

Day # 8, 9 & 10

Today Justin and I left with Richard for the day while Jaina stayed with grandma at the cabin. Grandma was anxious to show her off to all her friends. We left early in the morning and headed over to Cades Cove. Its in the Smoky Mountains. It is a 11 mile National Park of an old farming community. It was really really neat to see how people lived back in the 1800's. The park lets you walk through all the building to see everything which was awesome but the really sad part was that every building had where people wrote there name and the year they came to see it. It was horrible and frankly I was really disgusted by it. Do people really think there that cool to write there name on a piece of history that's been here since the 1800's. Anyways, the park was very beautiful and it was Justin's favorite part of our whole trip.This cabin was one of the first built in the Smoky Mountains dating back to the 1800's

Wow, could you imagine waking up every morning to this view...I could!

This was the Methodist Church, see the two doors, well back then the men had to walk in on one side and the women had to walk in on the other side.You can't tell but there were hundreds of peoples names all over the walls, on the pews, the alter and even on the outside of the building. How freakin sad is that! This is an old grist mill that is still in use today!

Inside the mill was a man who bags fresh corn meal and flour straight from the mill, now how cool is that!They let you buy the bags if you wanted. I am so proud of my fresh corn meal straight off the meal. All natural with NO preservatives. Another 1800 log cabin
After a 3 hour tour in the park we were all starving so we headed into Pigeon Forge. Pigeon Forge is famous because Dolly Parton is from around there, Dollywood is there and she owns almost the whole town. We called grandma and Jaina and told them to meet us there so we could all eat. Pigeon Forge has all kinds of shops, boutiques, tiny amusement parks for tiny kids, mini putt putt, theaters, tons of places to eat, live shows and the Dixie Stampede (Dolly's restaurant) We shopped around until Dorothy and Jaina arrived. We ate at the Old Mill and it was so so so good. They have the best biscuits and corn chowder.
Look how big there pumpkins are!Dorothy and Jaina waiting to go shop around. Justin Jaina and I took one of those old western black and white photos. We had so much fun, Justin dressed up as a cowboy, I was a flapper and Jaina was dressed in her little western dress. The picture came out so cute. After dinner we went to one of the mini amusement parks they have there to let Jaina ride some rides. Jaina's very first ride on a train with Daddy

Jaina and I on her very first Carousel ride. She had such a blast on those rides.Riding in the dump truck
After Jaina had all the fun she could take it was time to kick Justin's butt at go carts, well actually he kicked my butt!This building was super cool and I just had to take a picture of it. The building is upside down. Super cool. It is a theater and dinner show. The next time we come visit we will have to come back and eat here.At the end of our night before we went back to the cabin we stopped in at Mel's old fashion diner to have a banana split. And Oh my goodness these things are huge! Justin and I both shared one and we couldn't even finish that one! Jaina enjoyed eating some of our banana split
At the end of the night we were all very tired and needed to get some sleep because we had a full day of driving back to Texas.
The next morning we got up packed our stuff in the car and got ready for our long 18 hour drive home. Dorothy and Richard hated seeing us leave and we really hated leaving too. I think I could get use to living in the mountains.
Grandpa having fun with Jaina one last time before we left
Grandma getting sad because we had to leave

One last hug and kiss

Nashville city Limit

Memphis city limit
We finally made it to the great state of Arkansas. We stayed the night in Little Rock then finally made it home last Wednesday night.
See this is what happens to your child after 2 days of riding in the car. I think next time we go,we are going to be flying!!!